LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Landscape architecture is the profession concerned with the design, planning, management and stewardship of the land. Applying both art and science to their work, landscape architects provide consulting services, prepare plans and facilitate projects that create a balance between the needs and desires of people and impacts to the environment.

Landscape architecture is the art, planning, design, management, preservation and rehabilitation of the land and the design of large-scale man-made constructs. The scope of the profession includes architectural design, site planning, estate development, environmental restoration, town or urban planning, park and recreation planning, regional planning, and historic preservation.

Landscape architecture encompasses the analysis, planning, design, management, and stewardship of the natural and built environments. Types of projects that Landscape Architect are involved with include: residential, parks and recreation, monuments, urban design, streetscapes and public spaces, transportation corridors and facilities, gardens and arboreta, security design, hospitality and resorts, institutional, academic campuses, therapeutic gardens, historic preservation and restoration, reclamation, conservation, corporate and commercial, landscape art and earth sculpture, interior landscapes, and more. Landscape architects have advanced education and professional training and in Ontario are governed by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA).

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery and management of ecological integrity. Ecological integrity includes a critical range of variability in biodiversity, ecological processes and structures, regional and historical context, and sustainable cultural practices.

Ecological restoration is an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity and sustainability. Frequently, the ecosystem that requires restoration has been degraded, damaged, transformed or entirely destroyed as the direct or indirect result of human activities. In some cases, these impacts to ecosystems have been caused or aggravated by natural agencies such as wildfire, floods, storms, or volcanic eruption, to the point at which the ecosystem cannot recover its pre-disturbance state or its historic developmental trajectory.

URBAN DESIGN

The art of making places: Urban Design draws together the many strands of place making: environmental responsibility, social equity and economic viability.

Urban design focuses on creating a desirable environment in which to live, work and play. The relation or the dialogue between all the elements, the visible and invisible, the physical and none physical that create the urban fabric of any environment is crucial for its image, function, progress and adaptation of time. Urban design in this context looks at the outcome of the planned versus the spontaneous cities in general to accommodate the above. The elements are, but not limited, to buildings, streets, roads, land use, open space, circulation, height, natural features, landscape, limits, signs, advertising, history, culture and human activity. Other factors come in place also as the perception of spaces through our senses.